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Raw Honey

It was in a fancy boutique cheese store last week, and I noticed they were selling honey. It was labeled as "Raw Honey" and had an enormous price, however, it just looked like nasty old crystallized honey. What makes this honey "Raw"?

Re: Raw Honey

You can read the complete text at the link above, here are the most salient points:

(b) "Raw honey" means honey: 37 (i) as it exists in the beehive or as obtained by extraction, settling, or straining; and 38 (ii) that has not been: 39 (A) heated above 118 degrees Fahrenheit during production or storage; or 40 (B) pasteurized.

Some people will say that the 118 degree dividing point is too high for "raw" honey.

Re: Raw Honey

My wife sells 12 oz jars of raw honey in her store for $6.50. Its one of her bigger sellers. No filtering and no heating. Right out of the holding tank. Try bottling out of 1000 gallon holding tank into a 12 oz jar.

Re: Raw Honey

The definitions for "raw honey" that I've heard are all over the board. Everything from straight out of the extractor without even rough straining to strained and heated, but not to the point of pasteurization. I've also heard maximum heating temperatures of 104, 108, 118, and 120 degrees. Are we confused yet?

In the words of the late Richard Taylor, describing honey as raw is like describing bananas as boneless...it just doesn't fit. No offense to those who use it on your labels, however, I choose to avoid it as being too ambiguous.

Re: Raw Honey

I don't heat my honey over the temps it might reasonably be exposed to in the hive, and then only to decrystalize (and it takes quite a while at lower temps).
I sell it as raw, unfiltered and from hives untreated by chemicals.

I've found that here is a market for such honey at $30/qt when it is properly marketed... but the market that will pay that price will often ask very specific question as to if and how much it has been heated, and won't buy at any price should they think you've destroyed the natural enzymes.
And some of them have some pretty "out there" opinions on the matter.

Re: Raw Honey

Originally Posted by SWM

Everything from straight out of the extractor without even rough straining to strained and heated, but not to the point of pasteurization.

I think that would be called "Really Raw Honey", but that's already been trademarked. Not sure why anyone would want chunks of dead bees in their honey. I screen my honey and never heat it and label it as raw honey.

Re: Raw Honey

I have to agree with Astro....bee chunks are not appetizing so I run mine thru a strainer, put it in 1 lbs jars and sell it for $10. My label says "pure" not sure that is any less ambiguous but it looks good. 8)

Re: Raw Honey

There certainly is honey that can be labeled as "raw", however the definition of raw can vary between beekeepers who sell their honey as such. I sell mine as raw, I use a strainer small enough to get 95% of the wax particles and anything bigger than that out, then bottle it. John

Re: Raw Honey

All the honey I bottle and sell is "raw"--totally unheated and it only goes through a stainless steel screen between the extractor and bottling tank to get the big chunks out. I always worry about the uneducated honey buyer who notices the cloudiness of liquid honey when it begins crystallizing and thinks somethings wrong. The other day, I had a customer look at a bottle of liquid honey and declare "that's not raw honey....it's not white and grainy." I had to reverse educate her